In recent years, it has been common practice for automobiles and other vehicles to be provided with built-in drink holders which are typically of a size to receive a conventional 12 ounce aluminum can. Although this type of drink holder is satisfactory to accommodate beverage cans in a stable manner, many other beverage containers are too large to fit in the drink holder. For example, it is common for fast service food outlets to sell drinks in sizes of 20 ounces and more. The bases of the cups that are used to serve these large drinks are too large to fit in the drink holder, and the large drink sizes are becoming more and more prevalent to compound this problem.
It is not practical to simply increase the container height to provide a container that is small enough in diameter to fit in the drink holder at its lower end and yet present the desired large capacity. The reason is that the height of the cup is limited to that which can fit beneath the drink dispenser. There are other practical considerations that limit the size and configuration of the beverage container.
There have been cups that have a relatively small diameter bottom end portion to fit into the drink holder and a larger diameter upper portion to provide the necessary volume without undue height. An example of this type of cup is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,269 to Willbrandt. One problem with this construction is that the vehicle drink holders that are currently in use are not standard in diameter. Consequently, the relatively small lower end portion of the cup may fit well in some holders and yet fit so loosely in others that the cup is unstable and subject to overturning or spilling of its contents.